


Part 1: The Begining

by Natasha210



Series: The Monster Within [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Dark Past, F/M, Hate to Love, Hurt, Lost Love, Nick Fury Knows All, Protective Natasha Romanov, SHIELD, Secret Past, Secrets, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Steve Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-04 07:23:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 7,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17300303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Natasha210/pseuds/Natasha210
Summary: The Avengers were earth's Mightiest heroes.  Fury handpicked them.  That goes for his tool as well even if that tool has a dark side.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I have been working on this story for so long I can't remember when I started it. I hope you like it. This is part one of I don't know how many (because they keep making movies). This is complete up to Civil War. Each part will follow a movie fairly closely. If you don't like that, then this might not be for you. But I hope you will give it a try. I will do my best to post one chapter a week.

Luke Shylow ran around the small apartment trying to grab all the papers he could find.  His heart was bounding in his ears.

“They will be here soon.  We have to go.”  He called to his wife in the other room.  Rose was grabbing clothes for them and their daughter.  Luke shoved another stack of papers into his bag.  Why had they taken this job?  He could still be an unknown professor and Rose a famous musician.

“Daddy where are we going.”  Luke stopped looking at the door.  Jennifer stood in the doorway her blanket wrapped around her shoulders like a cape.  Luke gave the best smile trying to hide his fear from his daughter.

“We are going away for a little while Dream.”  Luke tried to reassure the five-year-old, but his shaky voice only made her green eyes grow larger.  He turned back to his work not being able to look at her any longer.

“Why?”  She asked walking into the room.  Luke closed his eyes for a moment.

“Because Daddy and Mommy work for people who keep secrets and today, I found a big one.”  He zipped up the bag just as Jennifer placed her hand on his arm.

“I…I can keep secrets,” Jennifer said.  “Tommy took an extra cookie at school yesterday.”  Her eyes flashed at the apparent secret she had shared.  Luke opened his mouth to say something when a scream filled the air.  He didn’t think he grabbed his daughter.  Jennifer was shaking.  Her mouth clamped shut trying to fight back the tears.  Luke shoved the shaking child under the bed saying a small prayer that they wouldn’t find her. Reaching into his waistband, he grabbed his gun before heading out of the room.

One year later….

 

* * *

 

 

Clint made his way down the dark hall.  This base was huge to think that S.H.I.E.L.D.  had never noticed it before today.  This being his first mission as team leader he did his best to hold back the nerves that were building.  He could hear his men clearing rooms as they went.  There was still no sign of the people that occupied this place.  He came to a large metal door with a lock on it.  He motioned for one of the agents to open it before entering.  It was a small room with only one low hanging light that barely lit the center of the room.  Clint scanned the corners spotting a small form.  Taking a step closer he realized it was a little girl.  Her black hair flopped in front of her face.  Clint motioned the others to stay back as he crouched before the little girl.  She slowly lifted her head revealing deep blue eyes staring back at him.

“I’m Clint.”  His voice caused her to flinch slightly. He tried smiling, but that didn’t stop her from pulling further into a ball.  Her eyes scanned him there was something about her eyes.  They seemed to be unnaturally blue.  “What is your name.”  He asked sitting on the floor in front of her.

“Base is clear.  From what we can tell she’s the daughter of those missing agents from last year.”  The report came over the coms.  “Barton there is a lab with a file that has a name on it.  From the looks of it whoever was here has been running tests on her.  Sir, it looks bad.”  Clint closed his eyes for a moment needing to prosses the information.  Then opened then turning his attention back to the girl.

“Is your name Jennifer Shylow.”  Clint’s words caused a flash of surprise to cross her face.  She gave a small nod.  “How about we get out of here.”  He said to her standing up.  Clint remembered when news about her parents came out.  Everyone assumed that they were all dead.  She moved to get up but was stopped by a set of chains around her wrist.  Clint took a step toward her causing her to retreat further into the corner.  He held up his hands pulling back slightly giving her space.

“I’m not going to hurt you I just want to take those off.”  She again didn’t say anything, but Clint felt she had given him permission to get closer.  He quickly unlocked them revealing bloody wrists where they had cut into them.  Clint turned back to the agents waiting at the entrance of the room.

“Rumlow hand me something to bandage her wrists.”  Rumlow who had joined them past over some cloth.  Clint wrapped them then stood back up.

“Alright, Jennifer lets go see the world.”  He saw the corner of her cheek twitch before they headed out the door.

 

17 years later


	2. The Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of this part will take place during The Avengers.

Darkness surrounded Jennifer to the point it was painful.  There was a low laugh that filled her ears.  Jennifer tried to move her hands, but they were handcuffed behind her.  _No, I’m back how did they find me.  I failed I should have hidden better_.  Jennifer felt her mind closing in around her as she tried to fight back the fear.  She couldn’t live like this, not again.  Waiting…hoping for someone else to find her.  Jennifer started to saw her wrist back and forth, cutting her skin deeper and deeper.  _You must get out you have to get out._ She thought working faster and faster.  _You can do this you don’t need anyone else.  They will just leave you again._

“ **You’re trapped in here with the monster you created**.” The voice whispered, causing Jennifer to screamed lurching up into a sitting position.  Jennifer sat on her small bed at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters alone.  Her body was covered in sweat as she gasped for air.  If only she could fix her dreams like she did others.  Jennifer looked down at her wrists.  She could still feel the handcuffs around them all these years later.  Looking up she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror above the sink.  She shivered slightly at the sight of her eyes.  Blue it left a bitter taste in her mouth.  Jennifer shook her head looking again wishing to see her green eyes.  She had not seen them since before she was taken as a child and all the testing was done.  She could barely remember them because of how young she was at the time.  S.H.I.E.L.D. had thought that it had done nothing but change her eye color.  That all changed when she turned 16.  The experiment had given her abilities that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t know what to do with.  They performed their own tests on her.  She spent the next few years living at S.H.I.E.L.D.’s headquarters.  Clint trained her hard wanting her to be able to fight back if someone tried to take her.  While residing at S.H.I.E.L.D., she went to school to be a doctor.  She wanted to be able to help people, not like the people that had taken her.  However, when other areas of her powers began to appear S.H.I.E.L.D. started to use her for interrogations.  They found her being around patients too dangerous.  Jennifer’s powers were complicated at best.  It took her years to figure out all that she could do, and she only told S.H.I.E.L.D. half of them. 

 

* * *

 

 

There was a knock on the door that pulled her from her thoughts.  Grabbing a hoody, Jennifer walked over to the door taking a deep breath before opening it.  Director Nick Fury stood in front of her.  Jennifer jumped back surprised to see him.

“Sir what can I do for you?” She asked straitening her hoody.  He scanned her eyes as most people did when they interacted with her. 

“Agent Shylow you’re needed for The Avengers Initiative.  Barton’s been compromised.”  He set his jaw.  Jennifer didn’t think she just responded.

“What do you need me to do?”  Director Furry handed her a file.  She tentatively took it from him.

“I need you to come with me to help convince someone to join us.”  He turned to walk away.  Jennifer looked at the name on the file.  Surprised by what she saw Jennifer called out to him.

“Sir why me?”  He glanced back at her.

“You know a lot about nightmares, and he just woke up in one of them.”


	3. The Man

Steve Rogers was alone in the old boxing gym.  He was pleased that it was still here.  The city was so different from when he was last here.  There were some old pictures on the wall some of the people he had known others he had heard of now that he was out.  It was an old-fashioned gym with a boxing ring and other training equipment.  To Steve though it was normal.  He had tried the gym at S.H.I.E.L.D., but it was too loud and busy.  Here it was quiet, and he was able to be alone.  Steve punched the bag to the beat of the explosions that hunted his memories.  Sleep was something that he did his best to avoid.  The thought of falling asleep and waking up in a different time again made him sick.  Even if he ignored all the nightmares, it was hard to close his eyes at night.  So, he would come to the gym and burn off some energy.  As the memories flooded his mind, he fought to turn them back.  He could see it Bucky’s face as he fell.  Peggy’s voice as Steve crashed the plane.  He had lost so many people, and he could never get them back.  Giving into his frustration, Steve punched the bag so hard that it flew across the room.  Sighing he turned around and grabbed a new bag setting it up.  Taking a deep breath, he settled back into the rhythm.

“Does the boxing help with the sleep.”  Steve looked up and saw a woman leaning against one of the pillars by the entrance.  Her black hair was in loose curls that contrasted with her deep blue eyes.  She was pretty apart from the dark circles under her eyes.  Steve shook his head at that thought.  He hadn’t thought about any woman since Peggy.  She had told him to move on with his life the last time he went to see her.  Peggy had gotten married and had a family.  She like the rest of the world had moved on without him.  He shook his head at the thought and turned back to the punching bag.

“I slept for seventy years.  I think I’ve had my fill.  You’re an agent sent to help me get back in the world.”  Steve said punctuating his words with his punches.

“I’m Dr. Jennifer Shylow.”  She said flatly causing him to glance at her.  She didn’t look like a shrink, but you never knew with S.H.I.E.L.D. Steve was still mad about the mind game they had played on him when he first woke up. 

“You should be out celebrating, seeing the world.”  Director Fury said walking into the room, glancing at Jennifer, before continuing over to where he stood.  Steve turned and started to remove his boxing tape excepting the fact that he wasn’t going to finish his workout.

“When I went under, we were at war.  When I woke up, they said we won, but they didn’t say what we lost.”  Steve said fighting back the memories.

“We’ve made some mistakes along the way some very recently,” Jennifer said pushing off from the wall and walked a little further into the room.

“You here with a mission Sir,” Steve asked the director without letting his eyes leave her.  She was looking at some of the pictures on the wall.

“I am,” Fury replied.

“Trying to get me back in the world.”  Steve laughed.

“Trying to save it.”  Fury said, handing him a folder.  He opened it recognizing the picture was of the tesseract.

“Hydras secret weapon.”  He said mainly to himself.

“Howard Stark fished it out of the water while looking for you.  He thought what we think, that the Tesseract could be the key to clean, sustainable energy.  That’s something the world severely needs.”  Fury explained.

“Who took it from you.”  Steve handed the folder back.

“His name is Loki.  He’s not from around here.  There’s a lot we are going to have to bring you up to speed on if you’re in.  The world has got a whole lot stranger than the one you use to know,” Fury said glancing over at Jennifer.

“At this point I doughty anything would surprise me,” Steve said letting his frustration show slightly.

“Ten bucks says your wrong,” Jennifer said before clamping her mouth shut.  There was a slight blush to her cheeks making him think that she didn’t mean to say it out loud.

“There’s a debriefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment.”  Fury called out as Steve started to leave.  “Is there anything that you can tell us about the tesseract that we need to know.”

“You should have left it in the ocean.”  He called over his shoulder at the two spies.

 

* * *

 

 

Jennifer walked over to Fury after Captain Rogers left.

“He’s right you know, you all should have left the thing alone.  No good comes from trying to recreate things from the past.”  Fury glanced over at her.  She was still looking in the direction Steve had left.  There was a flash of anger the crossed her face before she was able to shove it down.

“Tell me is he in any condition to help.”  Jennifer rubbed the back of her neck letting out a low breath.  She didn’t look at him but gave a small nod.

“I will need to look over his file a little more, but I think he should be fine.” She said glancing at the destroyed punching bag that was in the corner shivering slightly.

“You better be right.”  Fury said shaking his head.

 


	4. Chapter 4

Jennifer sat in the cockpit of the quinjet, as she flew it toward the helicarrier.  It was in an undisclosed location off the coast of New York.  She was trying to ignore Agent Colson.  Jennifer had known him for years.  Since Director Fury gave him the job of looking after the unnatural things S.H.I.E.L.D. came across.  Right now, however, he was doing an excellent job of embarrassing himself in front of his childhood hero Captain America.

“I watched you while you were sleeping,” Agent Colson said. Steve was polite, but Jennifer could tell that he was very uncomfortable.

“We’re about 30 minutes out sir,” Jennifer called back through the comms.

* * *

 

Steve had been surprised to see her when he arrived at the _plane._

_“I thought that you were a doctor?” he said._

_Jennifer wanted to ignore him, but she had nothing else to do.  Her co-pilot, Mark, was getting the plane ready and she was waiting for the last passenger to arrive.  Steve was cold and seemed to look down on the world around him.  Sure, everything was different, but that didn’t mean he had to come on to her nice plane like it was a dumpster.  The quinjet was state of the art he was lucky he was allowed even to know it existed._

_“S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted me to be a trauma doctor.”  She looked down at her hands for a moment.  “But other things happened, and I couldn’t do that anymore so now I’m a pilot.”  She let_ _out a louder sigh than she wanted._

_“But you still go by doctor.”  Steve pointed out causing her to glare at him._

_“Yes, because I’m still a doctor.  I still do the occasional medical thing for S.H.I.E.L.D. that is just second to being a pilot.”  Steve looked as if he wanted to press her for more information but was interrupted by Agent Colson boarding the plane.  Jennifer took that opportunity to see if they had clearance to take off.  She wanted to get to the helicarrier as soon as possible._

* * *

 

“So, this Dr. Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me,” Steve said pulling Jennifer from her thoughts.

“A lot of people were trying to do it,” Colson replied.  She shivered slightly not wanting to think about it.  When her abilities had first appeared, many had hoped that she was the key to the serum.  However, like many before her, it was determined that she was nothing more than a monster.  The people that had killed her parents and taken her had failed, and Jennifer had to live with their mistakes.  She started to talk to Mark hoping to drown out Steve and Colson’s conversation.  She didn’t want to think about the dark times, and they were not making it any easier for her.  She let out a sigh of relief when the helicarrier finally came into view.  It was still in the water, but if everything went to schedule, it should be taking off right after they landed.

Jennifer pulled the plane into its position letting everyone off while she and Mark shut it down.  An alarm went out signaling that everything was going to go airborne, Jennifer locked the plane up looking out through the windshield seeing the helicarrier slowly raise out of the water.  Mark let out a small laugh.

“That just doesn’t get old does it, ma’am.”  He asked looking over at her.

“No, it doesn’t.”

Jennifer stepped off the plane needing to head in now that the carrier was airborne.  Natasha walked over to her, and they greeted each other in Russian.  Natasha had taught it to her over the years.  She had informed Jennifer that if they were going to be friends that she would need to be able to speak Russian.  Considering she had been there for her during the early years at S.H.I.E.L.D. Jennifer agreed.  Natasha also was often correcting Jennifer’s form when she worked on her hand to hand combat.  She didn’t mind it most of the time.  After all, Natasha was the much better fighter out of the two of them.  Jennifer probably would never have become an agent if she didn’t have her powers.  She turned walking over to Dr. Bruce Banner.

“It’s nice to meet you, Doctor.”  She said taking his hand.  He seemed jumpy being surrounded by so many people.  Jennifer didn’t blame him considering the last time he was in a crowd like this he almost destroyed a city.  

“Ah, Dr. Shylow.  I have heard about you, glad to know that you don’t have to deal with the other guy.” 

Jennifer let out a forced laugh.  “Yes, if only Captain Rogers came back sooner you and I might not be on this ship.” 

Banner smiled, but there was a twinge of sadness that crossed his face.  He had tried to remake the serum, and it had given him the Hulk.

“We should head inside its going to get hard to breathe,” Natasha said grabbing their attention. 

Steve and Dr. Banner followed the two of them into the center part of the ship.  Jennifer made her way over to the large table and took a seat putting her feet up on the table.  Steve walked over to her, eyeing her.  Taking a deep breath, she removed them from the table, and he handed her a ten-dollar bill walking away.  Jennifer smiled looking at the money.  It had just been an expression, but she didn’t mind she would use it for a decent cup of coffee.  Natasha took Bruce to one of the labs where he could work in peace.  This left Jennifer to watch as Agent Colson slowly worked up the courage to ask Steve to sign his Captain America trading cards.  Before Steve could respond there was a hit on the facial recognition.  They had finally been able to locate Loki.  Fury looked over at Steve.

“Captain your up.” 


	5. Chapter 5

Jennifer flew the plane as quickly as she could to the location that Loki had been spotted. Natasha was sitting next to her controlling the guns if it was necessary. There was a large crowd of people running out of the museum.

"Loki drop your weapon and stand down," Natasha called over the com while Jennifer steadied the ship.

"So, do you think he can take him," Jennifer asked watching Steve fight back Loki.

"Well if Colson were here, he would shoot you for doubting the Captain Americas skills," Natasha said as Loki swung at Steve. "The guys all over the place," Natasha said under her breath. Jennifer watched as Steve was knocked to the side. She began unbuckling.

"I have to do something," Jennifer said switching the controls to autopilot as she got out of her seat. Natasha looked at her.

"You know that Fury only wants you to observe," Natasha called out to her. Jennifer hesitated for a moment. She hadn't used her powers like this ever. Only to interrogate someone that was already caught. Her hands started rubbing her wrists. Taking a deep breath, she turned heading toward the exit.

"Agent Romanoff did you miss me." Jennifer stopped as rock music came over the plane's speakers. She knew of Tony from Colson and Natasha, but she had never met the Iron Man. Jennifer slowly walked back over to her seat sitting with a thump.

"Would you have let me go." She asked glancing over at Natasha.

"I don't know would you have gone?" Natasha asked not letting her eyes leave the fight below. Jennifer looked back to the battle. She didn't know. The small laugh she heard in the distance made her think it might not have been a good idea.

* * *

Jennifer was trying to steady the plane, but it was difficult with the sudden turbulence. It was causing the plane to rattle and rumble as they flew back to the Helicarrier.

"Where is this coming from," Natasha asked after a giant bolt of lightning cracked overhead. Jennifer didn't see anything on the screens indicating that there was a storm coming. Something about this just didn't seem natural.

"What's the matter scared of a little lightning," Steve asked Loki from the back of the jet.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows." There was a brief pause before a massive thud sounded on the roof. Jennifer struggled to keep the plane stable under the sudden jolt. Tony put on his helmet and opened the ramp door. Jennifer heard some noise behind her but couldn't look because of the sudden lightning storm she had to navigate through.

"And now there's that guy," Tony said. Apparently, Loki's brother Thor had shown up.

"Another Asgardian," Natasha called out.

"That guys a friendly," Steve shouted.

"Doesn't matter if he frees Loki or kills him the tesseract will be lost," Tony called to them.

"Stark we need a plan of attack," Steve called.

"I have a plan attack." Tony jumped out of the plane. Steve grabbed one of the shoot's and started to put it on.

"I'd sit this one out Cap," Jennifer called out trying to follow Tony with the plane.

"I don't see I have much of a choice."

"These guys come from legend their basically gods," Natasha called out.

"There's only one God ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." Steve turned and jumped out of the plane.

* * *

Jennifer walked down the hallway heading toward the main room. She was looking at her feet. What a long day it had been. They had been able to get Loki back from Thor. Fury had him transported to the holding cell when they arrived. Jennifer shook her head thinking about the flight back. Tony and Steve had not stopped arguing about what they needed to do. While Thor informed them that this was all a formality and he would be taking him back to Asgard. Jennifer looked up from her feet just in time to see Thor standing in front of her. She stopped looking at him not knowing what to say.

"You are an interesting human." He said to her looking at her eyes.

"Thank you." She said not knowing what to say.

"Your eyes they are like those of Heimdall. His are not blue but equally strange." Jennifer just stared at him. "He is the all seer the great gatekeeper. He locked me out once, but all was forgiven." He tapped her on her shoulder. "May you never be locked out." He turned and walked away. Natasha appeared next to her.

"What was that about." Jennifer glanced at her friend.

"I have no idea. He was saying that my eyes looked like someone he knew." Natasha scanned her eyes.

"Well, we always knew they weren't normal." Jennifer shivered slightly.

"Yeah but it's another thing to have someone like Thor recognize it."

* * *

Jennifer sat next to Natasha at the large table on the Helicarrier. They were listening to Director Fury talk about what is going to be done with Loki.

"Loki has Dr. Selvig under some kind of spell along with one of our own," Natasha said. Jennifer looked down at her writs trying not to think of Clint being used like that. She was pulled from her thoughts as her phone went off. Pulling it out she looked at the message. It was from Natasha who was sitting next to her. _We need to get Clint back in the next 24 hours, or I'm going to make the phone call._ Jennifer read causing a rock to form in her stomach. _Why are you telling me?_ Jennifer wrote back causing Natasha to kick her chair. This drew the attention of Steve. He shook his head slightly letting his disapproval show. _You have a right to know._ Natasha wrote back. Jennifer's hands started to shake. _I have no rights that was made clear years ago._ Jennifer was going to write more before Director Fury grabbed her attention with the discussion that someone would need to talk to Loki. She closed her eyes before responding.

"Do you want me to take a shot at him," Jennifer asked holding her breath as she waited for him to respond. Interrogations were what S.H.I.E.L.D. used her for anyways. Steve seemed surprised by her question.

"No, I would like him to be able to do something other than drool. Agent Romanoff you will go talk to him." Fury responded causing Jennifer to let out a low breath.

* * *

Jennifer stood in the doorway of the holding cell listening to Natasha talk. Loki stood in the center looking up at her every so often. She had heard Natasha's story before when they first started working together. Clint had convinced her to join S.H.I.E.L.D. and leave the KGB. She has been trying to make up for her past mistakes ever since. Weren't they all trying to do that? Jennifer felt the shift in Natasha as Loki began to talk to her. She was pretending to be bothered by what he said, but Jennifer could feel a small amount of fear slip into her. She wished she could dissipate the fear, but her powers could only build on it.

"So, Banner that's your play," Natasha said pushing the fear back.

"What?" Loki froze at her comment.

"Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab and send for Thor." Natasha called up to Jennifer. "Thank you for your cooperation." Jennifer heard Natasha say as she ran through the corridor hoping that she would make it to the lab before it was too late. Banner was not a threat. The Hulk on the other hand. He could rip this ship apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I put two of my chapter together because they felt too shot. Thank you for reading I hope you are enjoying it.


	6. Chapter 6

Jennifer entered the lab finding most of the team in with Banner.  They had apparently been listening to Natasha’s conversation with Loki.

“The world is filling up with people that we can’t match and that can’t be controlled.”  Nick shot a look at Jennifer who was rubbing her wrist and looked at her feet.  She slowly slipped into the corner of the room.  The voice that haunted her filled her mind.  It was strange she usually only heard it in her sleep, but now she had heard it twice in one day.  She watched as the team slowly started to pull apart.  The arguments getting more and more heated.   Banner began talking as fear slowly filled the room.  Jennifer watched him slowly step back, and the rest of the Avengers started to tense up.  The voice was screaming in her head, and she looked for a source and spotted it just as Banner picked up the scepter.  That was it there was something inside of it that was calling to her.  The voice was suddenly cut off when an alarm went off on one of the computers.  Jennifer walked over to the scepter but didn’t dare touch it.  If it had this effect on her while she was just in the room, she couldn’t imagine what would happen if she touched the thing.  There was something dark in it.  A loud explosion suddenly shot through the room.  Jennifer fell to the ground sliding to the far side of the room.  She slowly got to her feet wincing in pain where she had landed hard.  Looking up she watched as everyone started to leave the room.

“There are a group of intruders in the air vents heading toward the prisoner cell.”  Agent Hill’s voice came over the intercom.

“Got it,” Jennifer said running for the door.

“Agent Shylow.”  Fury called out to her, but she ignored him running in their direction.  She made it to the hall where the central vent opened.  She stopped when she reached the corner hearing voices.  Jennifer crouched slowly looking around the corner.  Four soldiers were guarding the hallway where the opening to the vent was.  She took a deep breath deepening her eyes.  Letting out a deep breath she filled the hall with a cloud of black smoke.  The intruders shifted looking for the source of the smoke.  Jennifer slipped up behind them unseen.  Using the back of her gun, she was able to knock out two of the men.  While she was taking out the third guy, he hit the other one alerting him to her presence.  He started to raise his gun, but before he could shoot her, Jennifer reacted.  She turned her eyes black flooding them with fear.  The men dropped to the floor screaming.  She backed away breathing heavily her eyes returning to blue as the smoke disappeared.  She was leaning against the wall catching her breath when two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents came around the corner and stopped at the sight of her.  She pushed off the wall walking over to them.  They seemed slightly intimidated by the screaming men on the ground.

“Take these men to the infirmary and don’t let the two that are awake be left alone.”  The agents nodded and started collecting the men.

“…. Colson is hit he is in the prisoner bay.”  Fury’s voice came over her com.  Jennifer didn’t wait running in that direction bushing the small headache back.  She was the closest doctor to him, and she hoped the five-minute run wasn’t too long.  Jennifer rounded the corner just as Nick informed the team that Colson was down.  She ran over and looked him over before she shook her head.

“Jennifer just called it.”  Fury said to the rest of them.

* * *

Jennifer stood in front of the window looking in on her victim.  Loki had escaped leaving only his few men behind.  Natasha had been able to grab Barton, but he was sleeping right now.  Trying to remove the mind control Loki had placed on him.  She shook her head looking at the men.  The two that she had used her powers on were in straight jackets.  She had to wait 24 hours before she could try and fix the damage she had done.  Maybe this time it would work, and they would return to normal.  Why had she used her powers or at least that power?  She felt someone walk into the room.  Turning around she found Steve.  His brows were pulled together at the sight of the two men.  He walked over to stand next to her. 

“What happened to them?”  He asked his eyes not leaving them.  Jennifer wanted to look away but needed to see his reaction.

“I did this to them.”  Jennifer saw Steve recoil slightly at the words before putting his emotions in check.

“I thought you were just an agent or a doctor.”  She looked back at the men.  They were muttering nonsense to themselves.  Their minds were broken.

“Banner wasn’t the only one that was trying to get the super soldier serum.” She said Steve looked over at this.  His jaw clenching as he fought back the anger.

“You chose to give yourself these powers.”  He asked his top lip curling up at the words.  Her blood boiled at this.  She turned getting in his face.

“I didn’t choose any of this.  They were forced on me.”  She said clamping her mouth shut.  They stood there in silence staring at each other before Steve finally broke the silence.

“Uh…Natasha wanted me to tell you that Barton was up.”  Jennifer couldn’t hide the smile that ran across her face.

“He’s important to you isn’t he,” Steve said scanning her eyes intensely making her shift slightly.

“He saved my life,” Jennifer said before running to go find Clint.  She burst through the door into his room where he was sitting on the bunk next to Natasha.  He looked up at her, and relief flooded his eyes.  Jennifer bit her lip fighting back the slight emotions that filled her at the sight of him safe.

“I’m glad to see you’re alright.” His voice was quiet.

“You too.” She walked over and hugged him. 

“I heard about the men how are they,” he asked.  Jennifer looked down not wanting to see his disapproval.

“I think I can fix them it will just take time.”  Clint glanced at Natasha before turning back to Jennifer.

“Be careful,” He said plainly.  Jennifer opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by a knock at the door.  She glanced at the door.  Steve stood there with his eyes dancing between the three of them.  He must have followed her after their conversation.  Steve cleared his throat then looked at Natasha and Jennifer.

“It’s time to go can you two fly one of those jets for us,” Steve asked.

“I can help,” Clint said standing up placing a hand on Jennifer’s shoulder. Steve looked to Natasha for confirmation.  She gave Steve a reassuring nod.

“You got a suit,” Steve said to Clint.  He nodded “then suit up.”

 


	7. Chapter 7

Tony walked into the main floor looking at Loki.  He had to buy time will his suit was getting ready and the other were on their way.

“Please tell me you’re going to appeal to my humanity,” Loki called out to him.

“Actually, I’m planning to threaten you.”  Tony shot back.

“You should have left the armor on for that.”  Loki raised his hands.

“Yeah.  Seen a bit of mileage and you’ve got the glow stick of destiny.”  Loki laughed at the looking down at his scepter.  “would you like a drink.”

“Stalling me won’t change anything.”  Loki saw through his plan.

“No. no threatening.”

“The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that.  What have I to fear?”  Loki said looking out over to the city.

“The Avengers. That’s what we call ourselves.  We’re sort of like a team.  Earths mightiest heroes type thing.”

“Yes, I’ve met them.”  Loki cut him off.

“Yeah.  It takes us a while to get any traction, I’ll give you that one.  But let’s do a head count, here.  Your brother the demigod, a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend.  A man with breathtaking anger management issues, a couple of master assassins.  One that can drive people mad, and you, big fella, you’ve managed to anger every single one of them.”  Tony said taking a drink.

“That was the plan.”  Loki took a step closer.

“Not a great plan.  When they come, and they will, they’ll come for you.”  Tony walked over to him.

“I have an army.” Loki held up his hands.

“We have a Hulk.”  Tony shot back.

“I thought the beast had wandered off.”

“you’re missing the point.  There is no throne.  There is no version where you came out on top.  Maybe your army comes and maybe it’s too much for us, but it’s all on you.  Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be sure we’ll avenge it.”

 

* * *

 

 

Jennifer flew the plane into the city.  They had been able to listen to Tony over the comms.  They could see where the portal had opened was right over Stark Tower.  Aliens were pouring out of it heading toward the city below.  Jennifer and Clint did their best to take out as many of them as they headed toward the tower.

“He’s lining them up for you on third,”  Natasha called up to them getting the information from Tony.  Jennifer glanced over at Clint.

“You ready for this.”  He smiled warming up the guns.

“I’ve been waiting all day for this.”  Clint fired the guns at the aliens as Jennifer flew the jet toward the building pulling up at the last minute.  She directed the plane up to the balcony where Thor and Loki were fighting.  Clint homed in on Loki but before he could shoot Loki shot out one of his energy blasts.  It struck the side of the plane and alarms started to go off. 

“Hold on this isn’t going to be a smooth landing,” Jennifer called back to Steve who was the only one not strapped into a seat.  Jennifer jostled the jet through various streets doing her best not to hit any buildings.  She spotted an open area narrowly missing a civilian that was running to safety as she set the plane down.  It jolted to a stop, and the four of them made their way off the jet.  Jennifer did her best to stay close to Natasha and Clint.  She didn’t know how they were going to do this.  She hadn’t used her powers in a combative manner especially against aliens.  She didn’t understand how they would interact with them.  It could end up hurting the Avengers more than helping them.  Sure, she knew how to fight but not like Natasha and Clint did.   Steve joined the three agents in their fight on the bridge.  Jennifer ducked as he launched his shield at an alien.  She spun to her right stabbing one of them.  This was not getting them anywhere.  The aliens were coming out faster than they could take them down.  Thor landed in front of them grabbing his side.  Jennifer ran over using a bandage that she had with her to cover the wound.  While he was talking to Steve.

“Jennifer, I need you to help with getting civilians to safety,” Steve said as she got to her feet.  She nodded and turned to head in the direction where most of the people were being held up.  Steve grabbed her arm stopping Jennifer from leaving.  She looked at him razing her left eyebrow.  “I don’t understand or like your powers, but you better use them now.”  She ripped her arm from his grip.  Taking a step back staring up at him.

“You don’t know what you are asking me.”  She said coldly.

“That may be so but do it,” Steve said staring at her with ice blue eyes.  She took a deep breath before nodding.

“No promises,” Jennifer said then ran down the street.

 

* * *

 

 

Jennifer had gotten most of the civilians out off the main street.  An older man stopped her before she headed further down the road.

“They are starting to gather people in that building.”  He pointed at a building a few blocks down.  Keeping his voice low so the people around them wouldn’t hear.  Jennifer nodded now seeing the growing number of aliens that were gathering around the front of the building.

“Thank you,” She then turned to talk into her com “Cap there are civilians held up in a library about a block from you.  I’m on my way.”  Jennifer called as she stabbed another alien that had appeared in front of her.  She hadn’t used her abilities yet.  She still was not comfortable using them.  However, when a small boy ran out from behind a dumpster was snatched up by one of the creatures that all changed.  Before she could think things through, she turned her eyes to black and sent a jolt of fear into the beast.  It collapsed to the ground dead releasing the child.  Jennifer walked toward the boy, but he cowered away from her in horror.  She stopped backing away not wanting to scare the child more than he already was.  A lady who Jennifer assumed was the boy’s mother ran over to them.  She scooped up the child and held them protectively from her.

“Get back you monster.” The lady screamed as Jennifer’s eyes slowly turned back to normal.

“I’m only trying to help,” Jennifer whispered as she ran back onto the street heading in the direction of Steve’s location.  She had to be fast they were running out of time.  An alien came out of a side street charging at her.  She swung at it, but they dodged shooting a blast at her that she narrowly missed.  The alien smacked her in the face knocking her commes out.  This was taking too long she needed to go help, Steve.  Jennifer rolled her eyes to black and blinked.  The alien disappeared for a second then returned dead at her feet.  Jennifer stumbled back slightly breathing deeply.  However, before she was able to catch her breath, she heard a massive crash not far from her.  She turned the corner and saw Steve on the ground.  She ran over to him dropping to her knees, so she could see the wound.  She pulled off her hood and pressed it to the injury as Thor helped Steve to his feet.

“You ready for another bout,” Thor asked looking at the wound Jennifer was working on.  It wasn’t dangerous with his abilities he would be fine in a day or two at most.

“What you two getting sleepy,” Steve said through gritted teeth as she pulled it tight.

“Not a chance.” Jennifer smiled up at him.  Steve held his finger up to his ear listening to someone on the coms.  Jennifer hadn’t gotten a chance to find her com after it was knocked out.

“Do it,” Steve shouted into the com then stopped.  Jennifer wanted to stay and listen, but Thor and Jennifer had to get back to the fight.  She went left, and Thor went right.  Her eyes darkened as she let out a low breath bringing up the smoke and turned her eyes black.  Jennifer did her best to keep as many aliens from getting past her, but her mind was starting to fog. She needed to breathe but didn’t want to lose the advantage of darkness.  The smoke began to thin, and she fought to stay focused.  Just as she was about to blink another group of aliens out, they dropped to the ground.  She sucked in a deep breath.  Looking around she saw that all the creatures around her had also fallen to the ground.  She ran over to Steve he would have answers.

“What’s going on.”  She asked.  Steve and Thor were both looking up at the sky.

“Tony sent a nuke through the portal and Natasha closed it,” Steve said doing a double take at the sight of her eyes slowly changing from black to blue.  “Uh…there he is.”  He said pointing at a small figure coming out of the closing portal.  They waited for a dreadful heartbeat.

“He’s not slowing down,” Thor said winding up Mjölnir.  The Hulk, however, grabbed Tony before he needed to do anything.  The Hulk crashed down on the street not far from them.  The three ran over to Tony and the Hulk.

“Turn him over and get the mask off him,” Jennifer called taking her gloves off.  Thor did as she asked.  Jennifer dropped down next to the still body of Tony.  She looked at the Arc Reactor.  It wasn’t lit up like it needed to be.  She tried to check him for a heartbeat, but the armor was too tight she couldn’t get her fingers to his neck.  Hulk roared, and Tony gasped for air.

“What just happened please tell me nobody kissed me,” Tony said then saw Jennifer.  “Maybe you can.”  Jennifer rolled her eyes standing up.

“Not a chance.”  She said smiling relieved that he was alright.

“We won,” Steve said ignoring Tony’s last comment.

“Yay good job guys, lets just not come in tomorrow.  Let’s just take a day.  You ever try shawarma?  There is a shawarma joint not far from here.”  He said moaning slightly as he moved. 

“We are not finished yet,” Thor said looking up at Stark Tower.

“And then shawarma after,” Tony said.

“Sure, think Stark,” Jennifer said.

 

* * *

 

 

The Avengers walked onto the main floor of Stark Tower.  Jennifer followed the others making their way over to Loki.  He was laying on the ground moving slowly.  Jennifer stood in the back not wanting to get to close to Natasha.  She was holding the scepter that she had used to close the portal.

“If it’s all the same to you.  I think I’ll have that drink now.”  Loki said leaning back against the step.

“Sure, as long as it’s to go,” Tony said looking over at Thor.

“Yes, I will be taking him back to Asgard,” Thor said walking over taking hold of him.

“Just be sure you take the Tesseract with you,” Steve added.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one more week of this part. Then on to the next part.


	8. Epilogue

Jennifer sat at the table eating her food with the other Avengers.  In the corner of the room, she spotted her Monster.  Jennifer’s stomach dropped.  No one around her seemed to see it just her.  Jennifer closed her eyes; the world of nightmares came upon her.  To everyone else sitting at the table eating she just jumped slightly, but for her, she was slowly collapsing in on the memories that haunted her.  Jennifer opened her eyes and found the Monster gone.  Clint tapped her foot with his.  Drawing her eyes up from her wrists.  She shook her head but that only aggravated the headache at had appeared not long after the battle.  Clint gave a faint smile that just Jennifer could see and went back to his dosing.  She looked around the table.  They were all beaten and exhausted from the past few days.  Jennifer shook her head.  She had no business being on this team.  The Monster reminded her of that.  However, she was on this team, and she was going to do everything she could to keep them together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is short but I have posted the Interludes 1. Next week The Winter Soldier.


End file.
